The Penn's Grove record., 1887-01-01

! Florida items.
In my last letter I promised to Civ
you a point OF two about our first stew
ard we had IN camp and the manner IL
which we got rid of him. tie was on'
of those egotistical fellows, always
speaking of his skill rs u cook. When
he had been with us about a week, tC
hear the men in camp express theil
opinion of the grub was enough to
cause POUR hair to stand on its end,
The grub was seasoned with a thick
coating of dirt and then brought on
the table raw. Matter of course we
kicked and kicked hard against being
fed on glops. A council of war was
held to decide upon the punishment
of the offender of our stomachs. The
verdict was that he must leave camp
inside of twenty-four hours OF other
wise be lynched to the nearest tree.
Long before the time expired he was
seen in the dark of the evening with a
native Cracker" moving down the
river in a small boat. AS he has not
put in his appearance since l thiak he
took it for the gospel truth all that we
said to him.
At present we have u BostOnian
cook, q professional, u who under
stands his business. Yesterday being
Christmas, Mr.. F%errar, the proprietor
of the Fulton fishing camp, concluded
to give us a treat, and II handsome af-
ciate it. We had two fine turkeys,
various kinds of vegetables, four diff
ferent kinds of pie, fruit, both foreign
and domestic, all of these gotten up in
the a la mode of our professional cook,
who has had years of experience in a
first class hotel in Boston. Too much
praise could not be given to our stew
ard as it was evident he did his best.
1t is needless for me to say that we did
ample justice to an occasion like this
1t was one square meal we have had
since we left the steamer Monticello
and the only one. 1t is lamentable to
think that we have got to come down
to hog and hominy again.
Christmas was a gala-day with us
here. The days exercises consisted of
eating, running, cunning, playing ball
and spinning yarns. The evening ex-
ercises commenced at 6 o'clock and
consisted of building, a large fire,
around which an old fashion Indian
war dance was performed, with yell
ing variations. The last part vas
conducted by the intelligent youth OF
our camp, who gave us recitations OF
pieces from some of our celebrated au-
thors.
Perhaps it would be well to give
your readers an account of some of the
hardships endured by the fisherman at
Camp Fulton. This WAS exempli6ed In
the o of two Pennsgrove fisherman
about q week or ten days ago. The
wind had been blowing very hard all
day from the south ward. In the even
ing the wind died out but left a heavy
cloud in the west, which forebode trou-
BILE to those who went fishing that
night. But regardless of this, two of
the Pennsgrove fisherman started ont
that night. THAR ambition and zeal
being snperior to their judgement, they
became victims to the storm. As the
current in the river here is very swift
it was not long before they we're sew
eral miles away from camp. AT IL
O'Clock ut night it bursted out from
the northwest, blew a gale, and got
very cold. The boys being several
miles from home and to the leeward, it
seemed almost impossible for them to
reach home that uight but they made 4
superhuman effort to do SC and after
struggling many hours, they finally
reached the bluff about a mile below
the camp, where they left the boat.
They walked the remainder of the way
home, II of them having to ford a
creek up to his chin to get a boat to
bring his partner across The poorfellows
reached camp at 2 o'clock in the morn
ing wet to the ears and almost frozen.
This is one of the many incidents in
the fisherman's life in Florida.
l will relate one more incident of q
ludicious character. Three miles from
camp the darkeys have what is called
. ssshout" every other Saturday night.
A number of the boys concluded they
would 60 to one of them and among
the number were the Pennserove boys.
They started at 7 O'Clock in the even
Ing and reached the place of the fanda-
20 at $40. There WAS gathered the
dnsky sons and daughters of the Sunny
The program of the evening
of singing, dancing, and kiss
ing. Some of our boys took an active
part by taking for their partners Ia of
the smoked daughters of Ham. One
pf our number, a young man OF slender
build and light mustache, took n of
the unbleached beauties for his partner.
The manner In whcih they went
thorough the performance WA enough
10 bring = smile to the face Of the most
solemn man that ever lived, especially
when 1t came to the part for them to
kiss. Could some Of Pennsgrove's fair
daughters been there to witness that